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For the week of March 2, 2025:

What’s happening in British Columbia’s former capital city?

Dave Brett (New West Times/X)

New Westminster Times editor David Brett joins me to talk about the Pattullo Bridge, the NDP’s drug decriminalization disaster and the circus at the Royal City’s city hall. 

Plus, the NDP’s 2025 B.C. budget is coming March 4, the same day Donald Trump says he’ll slap tariffs on Canadian goods exported to the U.S. 

Five members of the John Rustad’s Conservative opposition caucus voted against condeming Trump. MLAs Brent Chapman and Dallas Brodie explain why. 

Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines. 

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For the week of March 2, 2025: What’s

Bob Mackin

How much will it cost B.C. taxpayers for FIFA World Cup 26 security and safety?

With 15-and-a-half months until the first of seven B.C. Place Stadium matches, none of the 18 members of the FWC26 Vancouver Integrated Safety and Security Unit (ISSU) would provide theBreaker.news with their current budget estimate or disclose how many of their personnel are assigned to the project.

Former New Westminster and Transit Police chief Dave Jones (LinkedIn)

The RCMP’s Lower Mainland public information officer was the most forthright. Sgt. Vanessa Munn said the Mounties have met regularly with the ISSU as part of their provincial policing responsibilities, “such as critical incident response, intelligence and event planning.”

But, Munn said, “a security budget has not been established and discussions are still underway around roles and responsibilities.”

ISSU’s joint leaders are City of Vancouver’s Dave Jones, assistant deputy minister of public safety Lisa Sweet and Vancouver Police Supt. Andrew Chan. Jones, the former New Westminster Police and Transit Police chief, did not respond. Chan declined to comment, instead referring theBreaker.news to Vancouver host committee’s Natasha Quereshniku, who refused to provide a current budget estimate.

Last April, the province announced the cost of being one of 16 cities in the U.S./Canada/Mexico co-hosted tournament could be as high as $581 million. That includes $88 million to $109 million for essential services such as provincial safety and security, transportation, emergency management and health services.

B.C. Place GM Chris May during a March 13 FIFA site tour (City of Vancouver/X)

City of Vancouver expects to spend at least $246 million on safety and security, team training sites, the FIFA Fan Festival at the PNE, decoration and brand protection, traffic and stadium zone management. The biggest line item of the original, 2023 city budget was $73 million for safety and security.

“Safety and security estimates will continue to evolve as key aspects of hosting are finalized, such as Fan Fest, training sites, outer security perimeter and road closures,” said the joint statement from four provincial ministries.

Quereshniku would not confirm whether security threats, such as drones and vehicular terrorism, have added to Vancouver’s costs.

Clarity could come as soon as March 4, when the NDP government unveils its 2025 provincial budget. However, that is the same day that U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to levy 25% tariffs on Canadian goods and 10% tariffs on Canadian energy exported to the U.S.

FIFA 26 will be the biggest event in Vancouver since the 2010 Winter Olympics, which cost $900 million for security.

FACT BOX: The full ISSU roster — BC Emergency Health Services; BC Pavilion Corporation; City of Vancouver Corporate Protective Services; E-Comm 911; FIFA World Cup 26 Vancouver Host Committee; Metro Vancouver Transit Police; Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness; Ministry of Health; Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General; Pacific National Exhibition; Provincial Health Services Authority; Health Emergency Management BC; Public Safety Canada Pacific Region; RCMP; Vancouver Coastal Health; Vancouver Emergency Management Agency; Vancouver Fire Rescue Service; Vancouver International Airport; Vancouver Police Department.

 

 

Bob Mackin How much will it cost B.C.

Bob Mackin

The first big personnel change under new NDP health minister Josie Osborne happened the same day the Legislature ended a nine-month hiatus on Feb. 18.

Lynn Stevenson suddenly replaced Fraser Health Authority CEO Victoria Lee on Feb. 18 in what could be an expensive transaction.

Will the switch improve wait times to see a doctor?

Fraser Health CEO Dr. Victoria Lee (BC Gov)

Former chief medical officer Lee succeeded the retiring Michael Marchbank in 2018. Lee’s total compensation was $453,131 last year. If her contract was structured like Marchbank’s, then she will be in line for 18 months severance. That would be at least $572,431.50 (Lee’s base was $381,621 last year).

Ten-hour wait times at hospital emergency rooms between Surrey and Abbotsford became the norm in recent months under Lee. However, Stevenson’s first weekend on the job included two overnight closures at Delta Hospital’s emergency department.

Ten-year wait over

Former BC Liberal Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation minister George Abbott finally became the new B.C. Treaty Commissioner on Feb. 19.

Abbott, an MLA for 17 years, was originally hired in 2015, but the Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation minister changed his mind. His name? John Rustad, now leader of the Conservative opposition.

Abbott will juggle his two-year term as treaty commissioner with his duties as chair of Technical Safety BC.

Auditor General Carol Bellringer

NDP brings back ex-Auditor General

Carol Bellringer’s tenure as Auditor General ended with a thud in September 2019.

Despite three years left on her term, Bellringer announced resignation in the wake of her instantly discredited report into the corruption scandal at the Legislature.

Bellringer found no evidence of fraud after admitting she did not conduct the much-anticipated forensic audit.

More than a year later, ex-clerk Craig James was charged with fraud and breach of trust. A B.C. Supreme Court judge convicted him of both in 2022.

On Feb. 19, the NDP government named Bellringer the new B.C. Ferries Deputy Commissioner, at $600 a day.

A patronage probe that didn’t probe patronage

Sheila Dodds became the acting auditor general when Michael Pickup retired halfway through his eight-year term last year.

Dodds issued her first report on Feb. 25, a look at how the NDP government populates 230 public sector boards, including Crown corporations, universities, regulators and health authorities.

The Crown Agencies and Board Resourcing Office (CABRO) acted as the clearinghouse for 956 appointees in 2023. The Office of the Auditor General reviewed 51 appointees (25 new and 26 incumbents) to 16 boards.

Dodds gave CABRO a good report card. Except, for a need to tighten up its conflict of interest policy and improve diversity assessments, because they were “limited and had gaps.”

Chief Justice Leonard Marchand (left), Premier David Eby and Lt. Gov. Wendy Lisogar-Cocchia. (BC Gov/Flickr)

However, there was a significant limit: “We did not audit the roles of public sector boards or ministries in the appointment process,” the report said.

Dodds admitted that her staff did not investigate how politicians pick board members. Instead, Dodds said they looked at how CABRO’s process provides “decisionmakers with the best information to support the decisions that they’re making.”

Two of the biggest boards are headed by NDP elites: BC Hydro’s chair is ex-Premier Glen Clark and Fraser Health’s chair is ex-B.C. Federation of Labour boss Jim Sinclair.

CABRO’s executive director is longtime NDP insider Vanessa Geary.

Top judge stepped in

The Chief Justice of B.C.’s Court of Appeal handled some of the new Lieutenant-Governor’s duties for nearly three weeks.

After the outgoing Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin signed her last cabinet order on Jan. 29, Leonard Marchand acted in the role of administrator until Jan. 30 sworn-in Wendy Lisogar-Cocchia signed her first order in council.

Number 69 of 2025, on Feb. 19, made Victoria Coun. Jeremy Caradonna a member of the Victoria Regional Transit Commission for $150 per meeting.

In 2018, a quicker transition. Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon signed her last on April 23, 2018, renaming Northwest Community College to Coast Mountain Community College. Two days later, Austin signed her first, a repeal of portions of legislation regulating greenhouse gas emissions and pest management.

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Bob Mackin The first big personnel change under

Bob Mackin

The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC) said it will not release the report “redacted or otherwise” that cleared Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim of drunk driving.

But the deputy commissioner confirmed in a statement to theBreaker.news that Sim was not the target of the probe it ordered.

“For clarity, the OPCC’s jurisdiction is limited to that of municipal police in British Columbia. As such, the scope of the investigation under the Police Act focused on the conduct of Vancouver Police officers, not the Mayor’s,” Andrea Spindler said in a Feb. 25 statement to theBreaker.news.

When contacted Feb. 21, Spindler originally refused to comment, citing privacy provisions of the Police Act.

Deputy Police Complaint Commissioner Andrea Spindler (LinkedIn)

Spindler said that, upon request from the Vancouver Police Department (VPD), OPCC opened the file regarding an alleged traffic stop of Sim. The Commissioner assigned the RCMP to conduct the investigation of alleged police misconduct and assigned another municipal chief, Abbotsford’s Colin Watson, to act as the discipline authority.

Watson found the investigation “revealed no objective evidence of an interaction between members of VPD and Mayor Sim” relevant to the misconduct allegations, which he considered “baseless.”

“The investigation concluded that there was no evidence that the Mayor of Vancouver was stopped in the manner alleged,” Spindler said. “The investigation revealed that police searched a license plate associated with the Mayor of Vancouver and Chief Constable Watson determined that those police officers were ‘performing ordinary policing duties at the time of [those] queries.”

The OPCC was satisfied the investigation was thorough and Watson’s decision sound, before concluding no further action was required, Spindler said.

Sim, who chaired the VPD board until last June, had publicly called for the report to be released. But the OPCC flatly refused.

“The OPCC will not be releasing any further information publicly in relation this matter. The OPCC has responded directly to the Mayor of Vancouver respecting his public letter to the Commissioner,” Spindler said.

Abbotsford Police chief Colin Watson (AbbyPD)

News about the allegations against Sim came three days after VPD chief Adam Palmer announced he would retire at the end of April. The previous week, Sim and Palmer announced the VPD’s $5 million “Task Force Barrage” to crack down on gangs and chronic offenders in the Downtown Eastside.

A source said Palmer is being courted to run for the Conservative Party in the upcoming federal election.

One of Palmer’s subordinates, Terry Yung, retired as an inspector last summer and was elected in October’s provincial election to represent Yaletown for the NDP. Premier David Eby subsequently named Yung the minister of state for community safety. In 2022, Yung supported Sim’s campaign for mayor and is the husband of ABC Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung.

Ralph Kaisers, the boss of the Vancouver Police Union, was announced Feb. 20 as an ABC candidate in the April 5 by-election.

In December, theBreaker.news spotted Sim under a plainclothes police escort, being chauffeured away from an event in an unmarked sport utility vehicle. Vancouver Police said that was because Sim is under a temporary security escort due to personal threats.

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Bob Mackin The Office of the Police Complaint

Bob Mackin

Pender Harbour residents say they were not consulted or even advised of a new agreement reached last year with the Shishalh Nation.

The NDP government waited until Jan. 29 to announce the 2024 renewal of the 2018 “landmark reconciliation agreement.” It includes $79 million in payments over five years for economic development, cultural and environmental programs. The deal will also identify and transfer other lands to the Shishalh for cultural and economic use.

Pender Harbour (Destination BC/Albert Normandin)

In 1999, back when it was known as the Sechelt Indian Band, Shishalh reached an agreement-in-principle under the federal/provincial B.C. Treaty Commission process. However, it rejected the $42 million in cash and land package a year later.

In a Feb. 19 letter to Premier David Eby, Pender Harbour and Area Residents Association demanded to know why the agreement was not released before the Oct. 19 election and whether the successful NDP candidate for the Sunshine Coast, Randene Neill, was aware. After the election, Eby named Neill the Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship.

First Nations land use was a sleeper issue of last fall’s election. At one of Eby’s last news pre-election news conferences, he was asked about a document that the Conservatives suggested would give First Nations the power to make Land Act decisions and for the minister responsible to supersede individual land rights.

“No, not at all,” said Eby, who called it a conspiracy theory.

Eby later conceded: “We need certainty. We need agreements. We need partnership.”

Retired government lawyer Geoffrey Moyse, who advised six B.C. governments on aboriginal land use, was a guest on theBreaker.news podcast during the final week of the election. He said he expected a re-elected Eby government would proceed with settlements and management deals that were paused or cancelled before the election.

Eby also appointed Christine Boyle to his post-election cabinet as the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation. During her time on Vancouver city council, Boyle was an advocate of the “land back” restitution movement.

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Bob Mackin Pender Harbour residents say they were

Bob Mackin

Employees of Metro Vancouver’s communications and marketing department cost taxpayers an average $130,124 during the most-recent year disclosed.

Director of communications Amanda McCuaig topped the list of the highest-paid in the department at $221,917.

The regional government, whose board members are not directly elected, provided the department staff list under freedom of information. Nine of the 13 were on the June-released 2023 sunshine list, which contains first and last names of staff, but not their titles.

McCuaig received $192,274 in base salary payments, $24,645 in taxable benefits and other payments and charged $4,998 in expenses.

Metro Vancouver director of communications Amanda McCuaig. (LinkedIn)

Shellee Ritzman, the division manager of corporate communications, received a total $168,640: $139,816 in base salary, $22,300 in taxable benefits and $6,524 in expenses.

Others: Alison Schatz, senior communications strategist, $121,540 (total); Jay Soper, communications strategist, $116,807; Dana Carlson, external program coordinator, $114,599; Carol Nicholls, communications strategist, $114,243; Greg Valou, communications strategist, $109,044; Alisa Drinkwater, communications strategist, $104,280; Jennifer Saltman, senior media relations strategist, $100,048.

Last April and May — after Metro Vancouver commissioner Jerry Dobrovolny revealed the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant project was $3 billion over its latest budget — four people joined the department to fill vacant positions: Senior communications strategist Nas Thorseth from Earnsclife; program manager, media relations and issues management Jillian Glover from Pacific Economic Development Canada; supervisor, communications and engagement Maria Bekiaris from Port of Vancouver; and Communications strategist Maggie Tung from the Lettered Creative.

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Bob Mackin Employees of Metro Vancouver’s communications and

For the week of Feb. 23, 2025:

British Columbia’s Legislative Assembly is back after a nine-month hiatus, which included last October’s election. 

Premier David Eby’s government wants to talk about the Trump tariff threat: New Lt.-Gov. Wendy Cocchia delivered the NDP’s war-themed Throne Speech on Feb. 18. 

John Rustad and the Conservative opposition came to Victoria, demanding the NDP hold a public inquiry into its handling of the ongoing fentanyl crisis. Two rookie MLAs made their Question Period debuts on Feb. 19-20 with emotional stories about how the crisis has affected them. 

Bob Mackin’s guest is Fran Yanor, publisher and legislative reporter with NorthernBeat.ca. 

Plus Pacific Rim and Pacific Northwest headlines.

CLICK BELOW to listen or go to TuneIn, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Have you missed an edition of theBreaker.news Podcast? Go to the archive.

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For the week of Feb. 23, 2025: British

Bob Mackin

Sources tell theBreaker.news that a report involving multiple agencies clears Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim of drinking and driving during his first 100 days in office.

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim (Mackin)

The investigation involved the Vancouver Police Department professional standards division, RCMP E Division and Abbotsford Police, in addition to the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC).

The latter could raise eyebrows, because the OPCC’s website says the independent agency “oversees municipal police misconduct complaints and investigations.”

OPCC deputy commissioner Andrea Spindler said she would not provide any information to theBreaker.news, “due to the strict confidentiality provisions of the Police Act.”

In addition to being mayor, Sim was the chair of the Vancouver Police Board until June 2024.

Rumours of Sim’s post-2022 election partying spread during January 2023.

ABC Vancouver leader Sim parted ways with his campaign manager-turned-chief of staff Kareem Allam on Feb. 6, 2023. At the time, Sim said he respected and admired Allam. Allam said he would return to his Fairview Strategy firm, but “continue to support the team.”

Allam now says he was fired from the $150,067-a-year job and believes it was linked to concerns he raised about the allegations.

“I never had any direct knowledge of the incident. If no witnesses came forward to corroborate this, this unsubstantiated rumour, then that’s just how our system of justice works,” Allam said in an interview with theBreaker.news.

“But what I can confirm is that I did receive a call while I was in the hospital [for a minor procedure], informing me of an alleged incident. I said let’s get to the bottom of it and, if it’s true — I hope it’s not true, but if it’s true — he’s going to have to resign. This is going to end up being worse than Gordon Campbell. And then Monday morning, while I was in a briefing with the city manager and other councillors, I was dismissed and discharged for my duties. I can’t imagine that I was discharged for performance reasons.”

Campbell, B.C.’s premier from 2001 to 2011, was arrested in January 2003 in Maui and kept overnight in the drunk tank. He pleaded no contest to drunk driving and a judge ordered him to pay a US$913 fine.

When he was 18, Sim pleaded guilty to failing to stop under the Motor Vehicle Act after being charged in 1989 with dangerous driving.

Sim’s office has not responded for comment.

In December, theBreaker.news spotted Sim under a plainclothes police escort, being chauffeured away from an event in an unmarked sport utility vehicle. Vancouver Police said that was because Sim is under a temporary security escort after personal threats.

News about the Sim drunk driving investigation comes three days after VPD chief Adam Palmer announced he would retire at the end of April, five months before his contract is up. The previous week, Sim and Palmer announced the VPD’s $5 million “Task Force Barrage” to crack down on gangs and chronic offenders in the Downtown Eastside.

On Feb. 20, ABC announced its two candidates for the April 3 by-election. One of them is Ralph Kaisers, the boss of the Vancouver Police Union, which publicly endorsed Sim and ABC in the 2022 election.

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Bob Mackin Sources tell theBreaker.news that a report

Bob Mackin

The Liberal Party will announce Justin Trudeau’s successor as Prime Minister in 19 days. But Democracy Watch is determined to hold him accountable for the SNC-Lavalin scandal after finding evidence the RCMP bungled the investigation.

Co-founder Duff Conacher said Feb. 19 that he is filing a private prosecution application in the Ontario Court of Justice, aimed at charging Trudeau with obstruction of justice and breach of trust by a public official.

Democracy Watch’s Duff Conacher

Conacher’s application, supported by IntegrityBC founder Wayne Crookes, was announced the same day that Trudeau revealed SNC-Lavalin — now known as AtkinsRealis — is part of the Cadence consortium the Liberal government chose to build a multi-billion-dollar bullet train from Toronto to Quebec City.

Trudeau was found in conflict of interest in 2019 after he and several officials under him repeatedly pressured former-Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould and her staff to drop corruption charges against SNC-Lavalin during the last four-and-a-half months of 2018.

SNC-Lavalin successfully lobbied for the Liberal government to enact a deferred prosecution agreement scheme in 2018, so that corruption charges could be settled with a fine instead of conviction. But Wilson-Raybould resisted pressure from Trudeau and company, to the point that she was shuffled out of the justice portfolio and into veterans affairs in early 2019.

Conacher found, via thousands of pages obtained under access to information — albeit delayed and heavily redacted — that the RCMP closed its investigation without interviewing Trudeau. That was not the only flaw.

“The investigating officer changed the standard of proof initially being used by the RCMP for the charge of obstruction of justice, and applied an incorrect legal standard as the basis for the conclusion that no one should be prosecuted,” said Conacher’s six-page will say document.

“The RCMP did not interview many witnesses, and accepted the cabinet’s restricted cabinet document disclosure order, and relied in part on the clearly self-interested and biased statement by Jody Wilson-Raybould in February 2019, while hiding part of statements by her and other key witnesses concerning whether the actions of the PM amounted to obstruction of justice.”

Further, the RCMP “did not even consider prosecuting the PM for breach of trust even though the evidence supports such a prosecution. The RCMP has also refused to disclose approximately 300 pages of its investigation records.”

Conacher’s application also includes a legal opinion from a retired Superior Court judge, who provided it voluntarily under the condition of anonymity. That opinion details the reasonable and probable grounds to believe Trudeau committed the criminal offences of obstruction of justice and breach of trust by a public official.

That legal opinion recalled the roots of the SNC-Lavalin scandal, in which an executive paid bribes to the family of dictator Moammar Gadaffi in order to obtain contracts in Libya.

If convicted, SNC-Lavalin would have been barred from bidding on Canadian contracts for up to a decade.

In May 2022, SNC-Lavalin announced it would pay $29.6 million over three years under the first deferred prosecution agreement with Quebec’s Crown prosecution office. The company had paid $2.3 million in kickbacks on the $128 million Jacques Cartier Bridge refurbishment contract from 1997 to 2004.

The company formerly known as SNC-Lavalin is a contractor on BC Hydro’s $16 billion Site C dam and operates the Canada Line rapid transit system in Vancouver and Richmond. AtkinsRealis Group CEO Ian Edwards and four others are registered to lobby the B.C. NDP government.

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Bob Mackin The Liberal Party will announce Justin

Bob Mackin

One of the biggest scandals of Justin Trudeau’s time as prime minister involved meddling in the corruption prosecution of SNC-Lavalin (now known as AtkinsRealis), for which he was found in conflict of interest.

On Feb. 18, Democracy Watch released 1,832 pages it obtained after a July 2022 access to information request for records from the RCMP’s aborted investigation of Trudeau.

Jessica Prince (X)

Democracy Watch called the RCMP’s work a “weak, incomplete investigation and attempted cover up.”

The file includes redacted RCMP interview transcripts with Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould and her aide, Jessica Prince. Prince is now an assistant deputy minister in B.C. Premier David Eby’s office.

In one section, Prince recalled a Sept. 16, 2018 phone call with Trudeau senior aides Mathieu Bouchard and Elder Marques.

“…we were getting a lot of attention from Ben CHIN on this file [Editor’s note: Chin was B.C. Premier Christy Clark’s executive director of communications; he now works in the Prime Minister’s Office]. Um, a-, and then yeah. So September the 16th I have a phone call with Elder and Mathieu, who at that point, Elder MARQUES and Mathieu BOUCHARD are both in the PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE at this point in time, they’re n-, neither of them are anymore but, um, they are both, they were both very Senior Advisors to the Prime Minister and they’ve both lawyers as well. Um, and they are, their roles at the time, I don’t if it, it’s said this on paper, but the understanding in government was that they were the most senior lawyers in the PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE. Um, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff and his principal advisor and the Prime Minister himself are not lawyers. And so, the understanding was if anything legal was ever going on, you had to talk to Elder or Mathieu. And um, so, the fact that they were the ones who called me, like I kn-, I, I sorta knew what this was about. Um, uh, they wanted to have a conversation about SNC-LAVALIN and then sort of the content of that conversation um, is, is, is captured here in the document. I don’t know if there’s much more to add in terms of the content. I would say it was notable that they both called me, like it was pretty rare to get, I mean, it was pretty rare frankly, for me to get a call from one of them, but for me to get a call from both of them at the same time, again, like would make me think okay, this is, this is, uh, like this has captured the attention of the PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE now. It’s not just the Finance Minister’s office, now PMO is involved and if they have both Elder and Mathieu it’s like, it’s ser-,like serious I guess? Um, so, uh, uh, yeah. So it look that on the next day September 17th, I had a conversation with, with our Deputy Minister. Um, and it looks like that’s when w., we had that discussion.

Jody Wilson-Raybould testifying on Feb. 27, 2019 (CPAC)

Prince also told the RCMP about an Oct. 26, 2018 phone call with Bouchard, who unsuccessfully appealed for Wilson-Raybould to intervene in order to protect the Liberals’ re-election chances.

He said, you know, Jess, we could have the best policy in the world, but if we, we have to get re-elected, right? And he was talking about the political context in Quebec, he was talking about the possibility of the company pulling its headquarters out of the province of Quebec. Um, he said you know, uh, there’s no, uh, ’cause I, at this point I think the Quebec election had passed, so I was like, what’s the time pressure? You know like, we, the election happened in Quebec, there’s no federal election coming up, and he said well look, uh-, there’s no per-, time pressure now but if six months before an election, they pull their headquarters out of Quebec, that’s really, really bad for us. Um, and, uh, y-, y-, you know, he just said we just don’t wanna make sure, we wanna make sure that no doors are closed, like we wanna make sure we’ve explored every avenue. So, again, I said look, like if you wanna talk to the Minister, she’s happy to talk to you, we can, we can set something up, right?

theBreaker.news sought Prince’s comment, including whether she recalls what the RCMP is withholding. Her office absence auto-response said she will return Feb. 25.

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Bob Mackin One of the biggest scandals of